Category Health/Medical

This illustration shows how four copies of computer-designed transmembrane protein assembled to form a rocket-shaped tetramer with a wide cytoplasmic base that funnels into eight transmembrane helices and which orients correctly in membrane. Credit: University of Washington Institute for Protein Design

Advance paves the way for the design of transmembrane proteins with useful, new functions. It is now possible to create complex, custom-designed transmembrane proteins from scratch, scientists report this week. The advance, led by molecular engineers at the University of Washington Institute for Protein Design, will enable researchers to create transmembrane proteins not found in nature to perform specific tasks.

In the living world, transmembrane proteins are found embedded in the membrane ...

Holding the hand of a loved one in pain can synchronize breathing, heart rate and brain wave patterns. The more empathy a comforting partner feels for a partner in pain, the more their brainwaves fall into sync. Increased brain synchronization is associated with less pain.

Reach for the hand of a loved one in pain and not only will your breathing and heart rate synchronize with theirs, your brain wave patterns will couple up too, according to a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The study, by researchers with the University of Colorado Boulder and University of Haifa, also found that the more empathy a comforting partner feels for a partner in pain, the more their brainwaves fall into sync...

Mouse (left) and human (right) alveolar progenitor cells grow into large lung organoids in culture, and make multiple types of epithelial cells including gas exchange type 1 cells (red) and surfactant-producing type 2 cells (green). Credit: The lab of Ed Morrisey, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania.

Implications for new approaches to repair damaged lung disease. Researchers have identified a lung stem cell that repairs the organ’s gas exchange compartment, according to a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. They isolated and characterized these progenitor cells from mouse and human lungs and demonstrated they are essential to repairing lung tissue damaged by severe influenza and other respiratory ailments.

The development of...

This figure depicts the enzyme telomerase as well as telomeres relative to a chromosome.

Can we stay young forever, or even recapture lost youth? Can we stay young forever, or even recapture lost youth? Research from the laboratory of Professor Julian Chen in the School of Molecular Sciences at Arizona State University recently uncovered a crucial step in the telomerase enzyme catalytic cycle. This catalytic cycle determines the ability of the human telomerase enzyme to synthesize DNA “repeats” (specific DNA segments of six nucleotides) onto chromosome ends, and so afford immortality in cells. Understanding the underlying mechanism of telomerase action offers new avenues toward effective anti-aging therapeutics.

Typical human cells are mortal and cannot forever renew themselves...